80% of homes on Long Island are without power. I'm at a friend's house "grubbing" power and internet, which is a popular pasttime all over LI today, and probably for this week.

Only one year after Irene, which marked the first time in history that New York City closed its subways, they did it again, and this time it was worse, with many tunnels flooded. There was a river rushing into the Brooklyn battery tunnel. Fires raged in Queens in the height of the storm, one burning over 70 homes that were simultaneously flooding.

My trainer texted me Tuesday the gym was open, no power but that's the nice thing about free weights, you don't need much more than sunlight. All in all we are massively inconvenienced but alive, warm, and well fed. Much to be thankful for.

Matt, I'm way out near Port Jefferson, on 25A half-way between Port Jeff and Stony Brook.

Doc: Actually nobody really got stranded, except for a few people with trees or power lines across their driveways. She had Wed off, so her first real day back was yesterday. Emergency medical workers have not had to worry about getting stuck anywhere.

We're moving out of the fun stage. I've cooked all the meat in the freezer I bought before the storm, and I filled my gas tank. So far I have not tried to purchase perishables but I think we might be eating a lot of rice. That's the big question mark in my mind right now.

It's strange, I can drive to work where we have power, lights, phones, internet, etc., and when I get home we have gas for stove, fireplace, and running water, but not lights or internet. So we cook big meals by candlelight, the kids are having an endless party, and then we boil up water for washing.

tbh, I have such a lack of resolve and patients for that sort of thing, I would leave and go stay in a hotel, even if I had to drive 6 hours to get there.

When disaasters like the Alabam Tornados, or this hurricane and others occur it always makes me wonder: Why cant we mobilize help quickly afterwards? It's the only time I become a socialist and want the gov't to bring in the landmovers, utility workers, sumppumps, distributions centers, and whatever you do when crap like this happens.

I know down here days/ weeks after the tornados it seemed it was churches and radio talk show hosts leading the collection of diapers and canned goods. There just always seems to be a lack of structure to the cleanup and rescue. no matter how many time we go through it.

There was pretty good response to this one. Other disasters haven't been responded to as well. Disaster relief needs better funding, and more resources, that's the main thing. The ball kinda got dropped with Katrina, but other than that it's really been a funding/resource thing. There should be something available for smaller disasters too. The lack of funding means only the really major stuff gets any help, while some other disaster that are still pretty bad don't get anything. It seems like if the government should do anything at all, it should be protecting/rescuing people in need.

It's also nice to see companies live AB out where I like converting a major brewery line for water production when the storm was first spotted. They are sending out many truck loads of canned drinking water. The secular and religious charities have also been contributing. Even regular citizens. I saw a picture of someone's front gate with power strips hanging over it, and a sign telling people they can charge their phones there.

So it's nice to see everyone coming together to help those in need. I'm also glad to see that at least most of you seem to be alright. Hopefully we hear from Stephen soon. I think that's the last east coast guy we haven't heard from yet.

We got power back after 4 days, which I figure is because we are on a state highway and are close to the substation.

As of last night, 700,000 customers had power restored, with 200,000 still having no power, 8 days after Sandy.

Last night we lost power, along with 3 neighbors, as far as I can tell. This makes us a very low priority, I figure this puts us in line behind the folks who have been suffering for 8 days, meaning I'm expecting power for Christmas.

None of that is what I'm complaining about. I can deal with it. Grace under pressure, and all that.

I'm complaining about the complainers. They drive me crazy. I can stay calm if I stay away from them.

I remember after Juan, how, once power was restored, it would go out a couple more times, every time a branch fell somewhere. Eventually, all the branches that were going to cause problems stopped falling. I kept thinking of my neighbour a couple miles up the road that has about 10 huge trees over his driveway, and his power line ran through the woods, not along the road. It was 2 weeks before he could get his driveway cleared, let alone get power restored. Luckily one of his cars had been parked out by the road and only one was buried under the trees. Have patience. Someone somewhere has it worse off.

_________________Stu Ward_________________Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~HippocratesStrength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley_________________Thanks TimD

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